Global military spending

Corbyn is a man of Conscience

We’ve been receiving a number of emails recently asking us the same thing: what does the election of Jeremy Corbyn mean for Conscience: Taxes For Peace Not War?

The simple answer at the moment is, Corbyn has always championed peace issues, and we are sure this will continue in his new position of power! Corbyn is a man of Conscience. There continues to be a buzz of excitement around the office since the result of the Labour leadership contest, and subsequent cabinet re-shuffle. What we are now focussed on is arranging meetings with this group of long-standing Conscience supporters who have now become front-benchers, and confirming their support of our cause.

In terms of Jeremy Corbyn, this is what we do know:

Jeremy has been a supporter of Conscience for over two decades. In fact, in a (much needed) office sort-out the other day we found a personal invite addressed to Jeremy for our office-warming back in 2001. As none of the current group of employees were working for Conscience 14 years ago, we can’t say whether he did come round for ‘wine and light refreshments’, although it does sound like an offer not to be refused! He has, however, visited us this year to discuss our campaigns as well as attending the People’s Parliament back in February.

Jeremy has supported Peace Tax legislation in Parliament in the past, one of the many things which has unfortunately been used to smear his name in an upsetting hyperbolic media campaign against him. He has always shown great interest when discussing our campaigns with us, and we are, as always, incredibly grateful for all of the support we have enjoyed from him in the past.

His time is, as expected, in extremely high demand at the moment. But this is not stopping us from trying to secure a meeting with him at the earliest possible occasion. And when this opportunity comes, confirming his support of our Taxes for Peace Bill will be at the top of our agenda. We are also planning on discussing with him how we can build a greater support base within the Labour party and beyond.

In other news…We are continuing to arrange meetings with Labour MPs, and have secured many meetings both at Conference and during October, including meetings with Corbyn supporters’ Cat Smith, Richard Burgon and Catherine West. Now that our conference booklets have arrived, we have drafted a schedule for the week which allows us to meet as many interested groups as possible. Included on this list is Christians on the Left and the Labour Campaign for Human Rights.

In support of the meetings we are setting up, we urge you to please write to your MP and encourage their support of the Taxes for Peace Bill. You can find your MP and write to them here: https://www.writetothem.com/

Please continue to get in contact with anything you would like us to raise at conference, and we will include it in our agenda.

Reminder: We still need Brighton-based volunteers to distribute flyers around the conference. If you are interested in helping out, please email outreach@conscienceonline.org.uk